Contraction and determination

Use in the book

A celestial impulse is common to every element. Ficino makes an element's common life determine it toward a particular generated life. Even if one initially assigns the cause to celestial souls, an earthly universal medium must contract their common impulses into earthly particulars. Nor will an unexplained meeting of many agents suffice: their convergence itself requires a cause organizing them toward this effect. The verbs articulate why mere plurality of contributing conditions does not yet explain a determinate product.

The soul of earth is then said to produce vines through the vine's principle and flies through the principle of flies. It also arranges matter beforehand by contracting the world's impulses in the needed manner. Preparing the material and producing the form therefore belong to a coordinated account. The preparatory verbs should not be taken to identify matter with the formative principle or to imply that an externally imposed shape exhausts natural generation.

Places to read

1. IV.1.4a common celestial impulse is determined within an element
2. IV.1.7–923contraction, convergence, ordering, and material disposition explain particular effects
3. IV.1.85bodily heaven's arranging activity is instrumental in the production of a higher kind of living recipient
4. IV.2.15one seed-kind is brought forward for particular execution under a general intellectual plan

Translation in this edition

“Contract” is technical in these contexts: the narrowing concerns the scope and mode of causation. The reiterated “in this way or that” in IV.1.9 preserves the specificity of material preparation rather than mere rhetorical indecision.

certo / certus

certo / certus. Printed forms: certa; certas; certis; certo; certum.

Definite, determinate, or fixed in the relevant respect. Specific causes and effects differ from the fixed number and time-span invoked in the recurrence argument. References: IV.1.6, IV.1.11, IV.1.12, IV.2.12. See Contraction and determination.

concursus / confluere

concursus / confluere. Printed forms: concursu; confluentes.

Convergence; flowing together. A meeting of agents still requires one ordering cause to explain a determinate outcome. References: IV.1.8. See Contraction and determination.

contrahere

contrahere. Printed forms: contrahi; contrahit.

To narrow a common impulse into a particular operation. The earthly common soul mediates celestial universality and particular terrestrial life, including preparation of matter. References: IV.1.7, IV.1.9. See Contraction and determination.

determinare

determinare. Printed forms: determinatur; determinet.

To bound or direct toward a definite effect. The common impulse and converging causes require an ordering source to explain this result rather than another. References: IV.1.4, IV.1.8. See Contraction and determination.

disponere

disponere. Printed forms: disponendam; disposita.

To arrange or prepare material. The soul's preparation of matter accompanies its determination of the incoming impulses. References: IV.1.9. See Contraction and determination.

musca

musca. Printed forms: muscarum; muscas.

Fly. The principle of flies differs from the principle of vines, making causal specificity concrete. References: IV.1.9. See Contraction and determination.

praeparare / offerre

praeparare / offerre. Printed forms: offerat; praeparantur; praeparatur.

To prepare a recipient; to present content for attention. Bodies are fitted for a kind of life and mind, while the motive power presents a seed-kind to attached imagination. References: IV.1.29, IV.1.92, IV.2.15. See Contraction and determination.

vergere

vergere. Printed forms: vergerent.

To tend or incline toward. Without a determinate principle a cause would have no special tendency toward this effect rather than another. References: IV.1.6. See Contraction and determination.